PETITION TO FREE ELENA, D.C. PRISONER# 301-340

PETITION TO FREE ELENA, D.C. PRISONER# 301-340,

To: DC Court of Appeals, President George Bush, Attorney General
John Ashcroft, Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman Senate Judiciary Committee,
Senator Patrick Leahy (Ranking Democrat) and other Senate Judiciary
Committee Members, Senators Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Saxby
Chambliss, Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, John C. Keeney, Jr., President DC
Bar, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Eleanor Norton, Michael
S. Greco, President, American Bar Association.
cc.: The Media

WE, the undersigned, are outraged by the cruel and inhuman punishment of
New Yorker Elena Ruth Sassower, Co-Founder and Coordinator of the Center
of Judicial Accountability, Inc., teacher and youth leader. Convinced of
the gross injustice done her for asking to testify in opposition at a
Senate Judiciary Committee Judicial Confirmation Public Hearing, and
petition the DC Court of Appeals for these reasons:

WHEREAS, after quietly waiting through two hours of speeches in favor of
one of President Bush's judicial nominees, and on the Chairman gaveling
down an adjournment of the hearing without asking if anyone present
wished to be heard, Elena Sassower rose and respectfully said "Mr.
Chairman, there's citizen opposition to Judge Wesley based on his
documented corruption as a New York Court of Appeals judge. May I
testify? No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than the DC Capitol
Police handcuffed, arrested and incarcerated her for 21 hours. She was
then prosecuted by the DC U.S. Attorney on a misdemeanor criminal charge
of "Disruption of Congress" and nearly a year later convicted in a trial
before a lower court judge who denied her a fair trial.

WHEREAS, notwithstanding that the prosecuting U.S. Attorney and the
court's own Probation Services both recommended NO jail time, and the
Probation pre-sentence report recognized Elena Sassower as "an
individual dedicated to reform and accountability through activism," who
"feels that she had been unfairly persecuted," and would not benefit
from incarceration rehabilitation services, the lower court judge
sentenced her to three months in jail, plus the maximum of $750 in total
fines, despite the fact that her conviction of "Disruption of Congress,"
involved assertion of a First Amendment free speech right and involved a
non-violent, non felony crime,

WHEREAS, we are shocked that the lower court judge DOUBLED Elena's jail
sentence from three months to the MAXIMUM OF SIX MONTHS, because she
would not accept his long list of unconstitutional, immoral, and
humiliating conditions to her release on probation. These included being
placed on probation for two years, during which period she would have
been required to "stay away from and inside the US Capitol complex of 16
national sites, surrounding streets, and two nearby mass transit
locations; cease all electronic, verbal and other communications with
Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator
Patrick Leahy [ranking Democrat on the Committee], Senator Saxby
Chambliss [who presided over the Committee Public Hearing as to Judge
Richard Wesley], and other Senators and named staffers, including as to
matters relating to her arrest, her home state NY Senators Clinton and
Schumer who had supported Judge Wesley's nomination; keep daily time
records of all her activities as Coordinator of the CJA in tenths of an
hour; do 300 hours of community service, 100 in the District of
Columbia, "under no circumstances will CJA work or related activities
satisfy this requirement"; abstain from all illegal drugs, and submit to
substance abuse, medical and mental health testing, as well as anger
management therapy.

WHEREAS, the lower court judge denied Elena Sassower her constitutional
right to be heard with respect to her sentence, it amounts to "cruel and
inhuman" punishment. His refusal to stay her sentence pending appeal
flies in the face of established law, practice, and her due
process/equal protection rights.

WHEREAS, the judge was a new appointee of President Bush to the DC
Superior Court bench, nominated at age 46, with no prior judicial or
criminal trial experience, whose protection of the government was actual
and apparent, his failure to grant Elena Sassower's request for his
recusal and change of venue to the DC U.S. District Court, where the
case was properly triable, denied Elena. Sassower her right to a fair
trial before an impartial tribunal; and

WHEREAS, there is no precedent of anyone ever being arrested, let alone
criminally prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to jail for respectfully
requesting to testify at a Congressional public hearing, we are
convinced that the judge's decision was motivated by political bias and
a desire to retaliate against Elena Sassower for her courageous work
in exposing politically-based judicial corruption;

WE, the undersigned, appalled and aggrieved by this unparalleled
mistreatment of an American here at home, respectfully petition the DC
Court of Appeals to issue an order immediately freeing Elena Sassower,
Cofounder and Coordinator of the Center for Judicial Accountability,
Inc., from jail, where she has been imprisoned since her June 28, 2004
sentencing by the DC Superior Court.

WE, the undersigned, further wish to express our strong support of
heroic Elena Sassower, shining symbol of a new judicial reform movement,
giving inspiration and hope to judicial victims all across our land, and
hereby respectfully petition the DC Court of Appeals that she be
IMMEDIATELY freed not only to vindicate herself, but the First Amendment
right of our citizenry to participate meaningfully in the federal
judicial selection process, without fear of being arrested and thrown
into jail. At very least, she must be granted the STAY PENDING APPEAL
that the lower court wrongfully denied her.